Sep 15 Jamming With the Philharmonic at Carnegie For Trey Anastasio, a member of Phish, it's taken more than 25 years to get to play with the New York Philharmonic at the legendary venue. Continue reading
Aug 27 Jessye Norman, the Roots Team Up for Langston Hughes' 'Ask Your Mama' Five years ago, Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman stumbled across a copy of Hughes"Ask Your Mama." She was instantly struck by the power and potential of the piece, believing it cried out to be realized as a 21st century multimedia… Continue reading
Jul 29 NSO to Live Twitter Performance of Beethoven Have you ever sat in the audience for a classical music concert and wished you understood the music better -- even for a piece you were familiar with? National Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Emil de Cou feels your pain. Continue reading
Jul 15 In Chicago, 'Rush Hour' Is Time for Music Classical music audiences around the country are declining in size and growing older, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. For the last 10 years the Rush Hour Concert Series in Chicago has been trying to buck that trend. Continue reading
Jul 15 Acclaimed Conductor and Wife End Lives Together in Assisted Suicide British conductor Sir Edward Downes ended his life last week at the age of 85, alongside his wife Joan, 74, in Switzerland. He had not been ill (though his daughter reported he was nearly blind and deaf), but Lady Downes… Continue reading
Jul 01 Kernis Takes On Ibn Gabirol in 'Meditations' What do you get when you pair an 11th century Spanish poet with a modern American composer? Last week, the audience at the Seattle Symphony found out at the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' "Symphony of Meditations."… Continue reading
Jun 24 National Symphony Orchestra Tours China By Arts Desk China is home to stars like the pianist Lang Lang, it has vast numbers of music students, it's the world's largest exporter of musical instruments, and it's building new venues to hear music all the time. Continue reading
Mar 13 Conversation: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein By Arts Desk Two years ago, pianist Simone Dinnerstein seized the attention of the classical music world with a debut concert at Carnegie Hall and a self-produced recording that became a bestseller and made many critics' top lists that year. Continue reading
Mar 06 Conversation With Author Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket By Arts Desk Through a series of unfortunate events, apparently, Daniel Handler did not grow up to be a musician. Instead, he -- or rather, one Lemony Snicket -- grew up to write the wildly popular series, "A Series of Unfortunate Events."… Continue reading
Aug 21 Watch 'Bang on a Can' Showcases Inventive Classical Music For the past several years, classical music composers have gathered to share their more eclectic scores at the "Bang on a Can" festival in North Adams, Mass. Jeffrey Brown explores the origins of the event. Continue watching